Today was finally it. iPhone 5 day. Customers who had been waiting in lines outside of Apple stores were finally able to enter and receive their new most-prized possession. But, wait – isn’t that deja vu we’re all feeling? Hasn’t this all happened before? Indeed, it has, but if you think the hype for the iPhone 5 compares to that of the iPhone 4S, think again.

Apple today told the Wall Street Journal that the iPhone 5 has far surpassed any previous models in terms of pre-orders. The initial shipment of the devices was sold out in one hour, and it was revealed later that Apple sold 2 million pre-orders during that first day.

Digital marketing research firm comScore compared the numbers compared the numbers revealed in the WSJ article to the numbers they have for iPhone 4S sales from October 2011. It turns out that during its first three days of availability, the number of iPhone 5 online U.S. pre-orders were nearly as high as the number of iPhone 4S’ sold in its first month.

This isn’t particularly surprising, given that analysts last month predicted Apple could eventually sell as many as 250 million iPhone 5s. It’s just a reminder of the powerful branding Apple has in the smartphone market, and how that power is continuing to grow, despite increased competition.